Food and nutritional education to residents university student housing

Abstract

Objective: To identify and expand the knowledge about food in order to contribute to changing habits and inadequate feeding practices of young adults living in student houses.
Materials and Methods: Quasi-experimental study, in which an educational intervention in the area of food and nutrition with eight university students living in student houses was conducted. Weekly meetings were held for three months, in the form of dialogues and / or playful activities and dynamics.
Results: By using the data from a questionnaire on eating behavior it was possible to know the eating habits of the participants. The self-evaluation conducted at the end of the intervention showed that they incorporated the healthy eating guidelines discussed in the meetings in their daily lives and that they felt safer when buying food. They were asked to score from 0 to 10 some issues about the intervention and the guidance of the meetings, for which grades between 9.4 and 10 were obtained. In the dynamics of “true or false”, in which statements regarding all topics covered in the meetings were performed, there was a hit rate of the questions between 90 and 100%.
Conclusion: The meetings prompted the students to change some aspects of their inadequate food and allowed autonomy when buying food (industrialized or in kind).